DELL ST3300657SS CHEETAH 15K.7 146GB 15000RPM SAS 3.5" internal hard drive

Dell Cheetah 15K.7 SAS drive

This 3.5-inch SAS hard drive spins at 15000RPM and delivers 146GB of storage with a 16MB buffer. It is built for Dell PowerEdge servers that require high-speed mechanical storage in a standard enterprise form factor. The 6Gb/s interface suits transactional workloads and database tiers where low latency matters more than raw capacity. It ships new with a server caddy included for immediate rack installation.

Installation and common issues

The drive fits directly into 3.5-inch hot-swap bays on the listed PowerEdge models using the supplied tray. No additional brackets or adapters are required for those chassis. Installers must verify that the backplane and controller support 6Gb/s SAS signalling; older 3Gb/s-only controllers will limit throughput. Firmware mismatches between the drive and the RAID controller can prevent the array from initialising, so matching firmware revisions before deployment avoids downtime.

Capacity limits and headroom

At 146GB the drive suits operating-system volumes, scratch space or small database logs where IOPS outweigh capacity needs. The 15000RPM spindle and 16MB cache sustain high random-read performance for those roles. It runs out quickly for media libraries, backup targets or virtualisation datastores that demand hundreds of gigabytes per spindle. Buyers who need more storage per bay should evaluate larger-capacity SAS or nearline drives instead.